


sanguineous

by ErraticIpseity



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Allusions to Murder, Blood, Body Horror, Gen, struggles with reality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 22:00:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20785727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErraticIpseity/pseuds/ErraticIpseity
Summary: Will gets a bloody nose. Alana helps.





	sanguineous

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Another cross-post from my tumblr from a while back. I may add another chapter at some point, but currently am marking it as complete.
> 
> ** Time frame: ** deep season 1, probably around episode 10?

_Sanguineous: _

_1\. blood red; of, relating to blood red_

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_2\. of, relating to, or containing blood_

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_ 3\. ** of, relating to, or involving bloodshed; bloodthirsty **_

\-- 

“Does seeing the blood of the other make you feel more alive, Will?” asks Hannibal.

“Not as much as seeing my own,” he answers evenly, steadily. He hasn’t felt this together in a long time. Hannibal’s office has an odd clarity about it today. It feels too precise, too pristine. A dollhouse with miniature Will and Hannibal as playthings in their petite toy chairs.

“Why do you think that’s the case?” asks Hannibal. Something looms behind him, dark and otherworldly, but it’s gone by the time Will registers it was there in the first place.

“Proximity,” Will replies. “Blood is inherently the vehicle of life-force, but if I can’t smell it, can’t taste it, it’s as unreal as everything else.”

Looking at Hannibal now, it’s almost as if the man has two faces, thinks Will. The one in front has come into sharp relief with the rest of his office. It’s pristine in the same way, like molded plastic. The other one sits just behind it on a plane he can only see if he doesn’t look too closely. Strange that he hasn’t noticed it before, yet it feels so familiar.

“Would you like to taste the blood of the other, Will?”

The wind whips around him, stinging, and stealing away the clarity. He misses it dearly. Blurry trees loom in the darkness. His hands are coated in red. His feet are bare. His watch is gone. 

_It’s night._

His tongue feels thick, sticky. He can’t see it but he knows it’s red, red, red.

_I’m in the forest…somewhere._

He swallows but his mouth continues to fill. He gags, spits, and warmth trickles down his chin. He dashes it away with the back of his hand. 

_My name is Will Graham._

He inhales through his nose. There’s no air to breath, his sinuses fill with more red, death, other.

_It’s night._

There’s a crumpled, dark form on the edge of the clearing in which he stands. 

_I’m in the forest._

He can’t tell from here whether it’s animal or human. 

_My name is Will Graham._

He can’t bear to get any closer to find out.

_My name is Will Graham._

He presses his back against a tree, searching for stability in the biting wind. 

_My name is Will Graham._

He doesn’t find it.

_My name is Will Graham._

“Will.”

His name is whispered on the wind. He’s not sure whether he truly heard it.

“Will!”

He gasps as he surfaces from his dream, 

delusion, 

delirium

but he’s drowning in red in this world too. Still every inhale clogs his throat more and he can’t breath.

“Will! Can you hear me?” 

He’s sitting at his teaching podium, and Alana is leaning across it, hand warm on his forearm. He nods. His nose is dripping blood onto his papers. He looks down at his hands and they’re coated in red. The woods presses against the back of his eyelids, straining to break free. The form on the ground heaves a shuddering gasp. Alana is too close; he’s dangerous, he’s red, he’s death. He shakes his head.

“Stay here.” she says gently. “I’ll get you some towels.” Her hand leaves his shoulder and his stomach drops at the loss of his anchor in the red sea. On reflex he reaches out and catches her wrist. Pity and compassion flash across her face. He knows it should be fear instead but can’t bring himself to tell her. 

He lets her go.


End file.
